The consequences to the quality of our lives, the satisfaction or the disappointment we derive, the joy or the pain we experience, and the significance and meaning we attach to our existence, all depends on how we play the Game of Life.

Are you locked into your Past?

Are you fully alive in the Present?

Do you escape into the Future?

In The Game of Life: from the Bedroom to the Boardroom, Dr Banai shares with us his human wisdom and vast experience gathered over more than 25 years in leading personal transformational workshops involving thousands of people from all walks of life.

And as he always says: "Choose wisely and with care. Go forth with love."

The Game of Life: From the Bedroom to the Boardroom

The Game of Life: from the Bedroom to the Boardroom is the very latest book containing 12 chapters, 254 pages, and 27 charts, tables, diagrams and illustrations. The Game of Life is commonly played from a variety of positions. The game itself can be soccer or tennis. Sometimes the game is an intimate relationship, and sometimes it is a business career. The game can be playing the aspect of parenthood or going on holiday. As a matter of fact, the Game of Life is all of these games in a variety of combinations. Hence, often the Game of Life is a very serious Game with significant consequences to the people involved. As far as we are physically alive, we cannot avoid being part of the Game of Life. The consequences to the quality of our lives, the satisfaction or the disappointment we derive, the joy or the pain we experience, and the significance and meaning we attach to our existence, all depends on how we play the Game of Life.So how do you play the Game of Life?

Summary of the chapters of The Game of Life: from the Bedroom to the Boardroom:

Chapter 1: Human Relationship to the Game of Life: Introduction

This chapter provides a brief overview of the different options, such as different Roles, different time perspectives and different existential domains, that are at our disposal in playing the Game of Life.

Chapter 2: The Four Different Human Roles

This chapter provides us with clear distinctions regarding the four different human Roles and their inter-connection within the Game of Life: The Commentator, The Spectator, The Player and The Coach. This chapter also offers the possibility of a fifth Role: The Referee. Here you can gain clarity as to which Role you are taking regarding the different aspects of your life and the consequences thereof.

Chapter 3: The Three Aspects of Time

We can live our lives in the Past domain, in the Present domain or in the Future domain. Since the Past has gone, and the Future has not yet arrived, then the only thing that exists right now is the Present. Paradoxically, this is to say that both our concepts, that of the Past and that of the Future, exist only in the Present, and the Present is all that exists at this very moment of Now. However, most people conduct the Game of Life from the Past and the Future domains, but seldom from the Present domain. In this chapter we dissect the impact of each time perspective on our way of being in the world.

Chapter 4: The Three Existential Domains

The Gap domain is the biggest, most populated domain, where the vast majority of the people of the Earth reside. It is the gap between the way you wish your life to be, and the way it has turned out to be. It is the gap between what you wish to be and what you have become. It is the gap between your dreams and your manifested reality. Most human beings are not even aware of their existence within the Gap domain. In this chapter we explore in-depth the three human existential domains – the Vision domain, the Reality domain and the Gap domain, as well as the inter-relationships among these domains.

The Game of Life can be played from a position of betraying and deceiving the Self, at times even for an entire lifetime, or from a position of empowering and actualising the Self. The sooner we recognise and abandon the commonly accepted position of Self-deception, the sooner we can embark on the unique and rewarding road of Self-actualisation.

Chapter 6: Human Conflict: Development and Prevention

The Game of Life can be played from a position of self rightness, which creates conflict, war and the desire to win at the expense of another. Alternatively, the Game of Life can be played from a position of willingness to be wrong, which creates co-operation, peace and a win-win Game. This chapter explores these aspects in many details.

Chapter 7: The Victim Domain versus the Accountability Domain

At the two opposite poles of the spectrum of human existence and the Game of Life, we find the Victim domain and the Accountability and Responsibility domain. These two domains are mutually exclusive to one another. Our existence in one domain excludes and prevents our existence in the other domain, although we may shift from one domain to another, at any given time. Thus, in playing the Game of Life we are either a Victim, or we are Accountable and Responsible.

Chapter 8: The Fishbowl Domain and the Field Domain

A fish that lives its entire life in a fishbowl has only the awareness of the fishbowl. The fish has no awareness of the existence of the Outside. Most human beings are just like our fish. They were born into their cultural Fishbowl, and having no external perspective of it, they possess the inevitable view that the way they play the Game of Life is the only way to play. In this chapter we establish the distinctions between the Fishbowl domain and the Outside or the Field domain, so that in playing the Game of Life, we can transcend our own cultural Fishbowl domain.

Chapter 9: Relationship with the Physical Universe

This chapter offers two significant notions: firstly, the Physical Universe is our true Teacher or Guide; secondly, the Physical Universe applauds, i.e. acknowledges and interacts with our actions, but not with our process of thinking. Thus, in order to succeed in playing the Game of Life, we need to constantly operate from the Stop-Look-Correct-Take Action model of operation, which, in the physical world, is the only effective mode of operation.

Chapter 10: Human Relationship with Failure and Success

As a culture that is obsessed with Success, we refuse to interact with the aspect called Failure. The fear of Failure runs deep within us as it is instilled from the earliest susceptible age. As such, we do not embrace Failure willingly, we do not talk about and interact with Failure, and therefore we do not learn about Failure. However, every human being fails from time to time. Thus, the domain of Failure is an integral part of the Game of Life. What makes the difference is whether we fail correctly or whether we fail incorrectly. It is Incorrect Failure that attracts and exacerbates further failures, while Correct Failure leads to success.

Chapter 11: Rules and Agreements

Human beings have developed a strong and persistent resistance to rules. The rules are often perceived as restrictive and authoritarian, rather than supportive and protective in their nature. However, the nature of every organisation, activity and game is defined by its rules. The rules are the established guidelines or regulations to determine the parameters of action and involvement that are to take place. As such, rules are a vital, dynamic and extremely influential factor in the Game of Life and in the organisation of the Universe at large. There is an automatic price to pay when we break the rules, and there is an automatic reward to gain when we keep the rules. There are structural rules (among which we find 'written' and 'unwritten' rules, humane and inhumane rules, constructive and destructive rules, flexible and rigid rules, 'must' and 'should' rules), rules of Being and Universal Rules. Knowing the rules, we can successfully play the Game of Life.

Chapter 12: Conclusion: Living and the Game of Life

One of the most difficult aspects to comprehend is the aspect called Living. Living is clearly distinguished from the Game of Life. While the Game of Life can be grasped and analysed through the faculty of human logic, Living can only be experienced authentically, as a first-hand exposure, and thus it is beyond the comprehension and the boundaries of our human logic. The two aspects, Living and the Game of Life, are like two sides of a coin: while the two sides differ from each other in their respective manifestations, they are fundamentally connected to each other, hence creating the 'coin'.

With all of the above awareness, we can succeed in and enjoy the Game of Life. So choose wisely and with care.